Keep Me Up

One morning in October 2013, I woke up at a girl’s house an hour before she did. I had nothing to do but wait for her to stir, so I took her guitar and crept downstairs.

Forty-five minutes later I’d written this song.

I liked the idea of writing something that uses the language of packaging – “this way up”, “handle with care”, “do not bend”, “fragile” - to illustrate the fragility of relationships, so that’s where the title comes from. The song is about what it feels like when hope is all you have; the willingness to reassure yourself and those around you that everything will be fine, even though every sign is showing that it isn’t and won’t be. It gets to a point in such circumstances where you’re not asking for reassurance, or answers, or change; you just want people to help you keep hoping.

This is the first time I’ve produced a song of mine 100% acoustically, because I felt it was the right way to reflect the vulnerability being expressed.